Gardens of Delight by Mike Russell Sussex Wildlife Trust

The grey clouds envelope the landscape like a well- worn duvet and, well, it’s very tempting to stay in the warm, get a good book, watch a DVD, play on the computer and wait patiently for spring!

Or there is an alternative that doesn’t involve going outside, well not much anyway. Feed the birds in your garden, set your chair in a favourable position and just let the entertainment unfold before your eyes. It is likely that many of you are in fact already doing this, feeding birds is actually a huge and expanding business and you can revel in the idea you are keeping literally tens of millions of birds alive when their natural food is scarce.

While watching birds you will be surprised at how many different species will come, even in the most urban of gardens. You may then also get to know individual birds as that come regularly as well, learn how different species behave, what foods they prefer and at some stage you will get a lovely surprise when an unfamiliar bird visits. Last year for example, a number of gardens in both Brighton and Worthing were visited by waxwings, brightly coloured invaders from the wilds of Northern Europe.

Wherever they are, many gardens will attract starlings and house sparrows, species that have adapted easily to urban environments, followed closely by collared doves and if you live in towns along the coast, herring gulls! Robins and blackbirds are also happy in town gardens, providing there is a bit of shelter, while the archetypal garden birds, blue tits and great tits move around from garden to garden sampling what is on the menu.

Increasingly more species are moving out of the countryside into town gardens, and this added diversity makes watching even more pleasurable. Finches are a particularly colourful family and a variety of different seeds and grain will often attract in. Niger seed are a particular favourite food of the gold finches, while sunflower seeds are irresistible to green finches and chaf finches and as winter progresses it is worth looking carefully amongst the chaf finches for a similar species, more orange in colour than pink, the brambling, another occasional visitor from Northern Europe.

In the New Year siskins, smaller but a brighter green than green finches, start to come into towns as food in the countryside becomes scarce. A recent and very welcome addition to the garden feast is the bull finch – a bird that has only just realised what it has been missing. The bright pink breast of the male lightens up any dull winter’s day.

A favourite visitor to any garden is the dainty long- tailed tit, usually arriving in family parties these small black and white birds with a delightful pink fl ush purring softly to each other. Those gardens that are close to woodlands have a really good chance of attracting a nuthatch or great spotted woodpecker, two species that can dominate a bird table, but in both cases we can forgive them as their colourful and striking presence makes you want to just sit and admire them.

In a natural world birds wouldn’t have to be artificially fed, but we homo sapiens have mucked up their world so much that to keep them alive in the winter our providing that food is helping to compensate for our misdemeanours. In fact we all benefit as the birds get their food and we get the pleasure of having our very own natural history show in our garden.

There are some ‘do’s’ and ‘dont’s’ when feeding birds so if you would like some advice please look at the SWT website www.sussexwt.org.uk/wildlife advice/wildlifegardening or ring Wildcall on 01273 494777.

Mike Russell Sussex Wildlife Trust www.sussexwt.org.uk

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